Reporter's privilege
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NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · November 19, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Judiciary Committee rejects shield bill amendments
The Senate Judiciary Committee today voted down two proposed amendments to federal shield legislation and indicated that a committee or Senate vote may occur in the near future -- even if Republican opposition prompts sponsors to bypass the committee entirely.
While some senators, including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., John Cornyn, R-Tx., and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., expressed lingering concerns over various aspects of the bill, the Obama administration recommended the legislation stay in its current form in a Nov. 4 letter to the committee from Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair.
After protracted discussion over proposed amendments, one of the bill's sponsors, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., pressed for the committee to vote on the legislation as soon as possible.
“If you still can’t vote for this bill, you don’t really want any protections for . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 5:49 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Washington, D.C. · November 5, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Obama administration publicly endorses shield bill
The Obama administration today released a letter that supports revised legislation pending in the Senate Judiciary Committee that broadly defines the definition of a journalist in a proposed federal shield law.
The letter, signed by Attorney General Eric Holder and Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair, represents the first presidential endorsement of federal shield legislation. Previously, the Obama administration had surprised shield law advocates by suggesting the federal legislation contain a new exception that would have eliminated judicial review if the executive branch asserted a government leak would cause significant harm to national security.
Under the revised version of the law, a journalist will not be required to be a salaried employee of a media company, but rather a person gathering news for the purpose of disseminating the information to the public, which could include unpaid online journalists. A person who is reasonably believed to be . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 5:09 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · October 30, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Senators announce compromise on federal shield bill
Two senators announced Friday that the Obama Administration has agreed to a deal that could allow plans for a federal journalist shield law to move forward next week.
Sens. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that the new version of the Free Flow of Information Act will no longer only apply to "salaried employees" and independent contractors for established news organizations, but will cover freelancers and online journalists. The bill will also preserve a public-interest balancing test for criminal, civil and leak cases, meaning that a judge will be able to weight the public interest in confidentiality against the public interest served by compelled disclosure. The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to mark up the revised bill on Thursday.
“The negotiated compromise creates a fair standard to protect the public interest, journalists, the news media, bloggers, prosecutors and litigants,” said Specter. “The news media kept up the pressure for years to produce . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 6:10 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Tennessee · October 27, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Death threats spur release of web commenter's identity
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported today that it complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for information about a single user comment on its Web site.
The FBI requested the information as part of an investigation into reported death threats made against defense attorneys for the alleged ringleader of a January 2007 carjacking and double murder of a young local couple. Though the U.S. Attorney’s office asked the newspaper to keep the information secret, editors posted a story on the Web detailing the expanded death-threat investigation and explaining to readers its decision to comply with the subpoena.
Jack Lail, director of news innovation for the paper’s Web site, knoxnews.com, said editors consulted with corporate counsel and determined the narrow nature of the request made it doubtful the paper would successfully defend the confidentiality in court.
“This was a narrowly defined request for information about a single comment, and we felt that they were not on a fishing . . . [more]
— Ansley Schrimpf, 6:30 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK California · October 21, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
TMZ founder disgusted by sheriff's search of his phone records
The founder of the gossip network TMZ said this week he is outraged that Los Angeles authorities obtained his telephone records during an investigation into who leaked news of Mel Gibson's 2006 arrest for drunken driving, LA Observed reported.
Harvey Levin told an audience at a Southern California Radio & Television News Association meeting that "it breaks federal law, it breaks state law. . . . I have reason now to believe they have done it again. . . . This is like 'Chinatown.' It is . . . [more]
— Amanda Becker, 4:09 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · October 1, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Obama administration publicly dissatisfied with Senate's federal shield bill
The Obama administration proposed substantial changes to the pending federal shield bill that would weaken its protections against compelling journalists to testify in the interest of national security, The New York Times reported.
The administration told Congress that the federal shield bill being considered in the Senate should include a new, broad exception in cases involving government leaks that would cause “significant” harm to national security and that . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 5:15 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Wisconsin · September 23, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Wisconsin Assembly passes shield bill
The Wisconsin Assembly yesterday passed the state’s first shield bill for reporters—clearing the first hurdle in the path to become a law, the Associated Press reported.
The Whistleblower Protection Act, which passed on a voice vote, was introduced in the state legislature last May with the support of the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and the . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 4:56 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · September 17, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Progress on shield bill slows in Senate Judiciary Committee
Media advocates were anticipating a long-awaited vote on the Senate version of the federal shield law during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this morning, but progress faltered as Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and other committee Republicans effectively “stonewalled” progress on the bill, committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said in a press release.
The Free of Flow Information Act, bipartisan legislation that would establish a reporter's privilege to protect sources, . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 6:05 pm · View reader comments (1)
QUICKLINK Texas · September 15, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Court grants freelancer's motion to protect hard drive
The Supreme Court of Texas on Friday granted a journalist's emergency motion to temporarily suspend a lower court's order to turn over his computer hard drive in a defamation suit filed by the mother of the late Anna Nicole Smith.
Atlanta freelance journalist Art Harris appealed the motion on Sept. 11, the same day it was granted, after it was denied by an intermediate appellate court in Texas.
If the court rules against Harris on the issue, he will give his hard drive and other . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 4:40 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Washington, D.C. · September 10, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Senate Judiciary Committee tweaks federal shield bill
The Senate Judiciary Committee presented modifications to the bill that would create a federal shield law this morning in an ongoing effort to reach a compromise between the supporters and opponents of the proposed legislation.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), who is among the Free Flow of Information Act’s bipartisan co-sponsors, outlined revisions to the proposed privilege, which included a broader exemption from coverage in cases related to terrorism and national security, and the addition of a section that would allow judges to quickly review allegedly protected information . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 6:22 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE Hawaii · September 9, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Hawaii judge makes state's first shield law ruling
A Hawaii trial court judge last week made the first ruling under the state's year-old media shield law, granting a documentary filmmaker’s request to keep his unpublished footage and sources confidential, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported.
Kauai Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Watanabe declined to allow Joseph Brescia to depose or subpoena filmmaker Keoni Kealoha Alvarez, who was not a party in the suit, about material he gathered while documenting Native Hawaiian burial practices. Brescia is a litigant in a property suit who allegedly sought to build on land containing such grave sites. After a hearing with the judge, Alvarez, along with the Hawaii ACLU and attorney James J. Bickerton, successfully moved for a protective order pursuant to the state shield law.
Although the Hawaii shield law . . . [more]
— Cristina Abello, 6:12 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK International · September 2, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Canadian high court has a media law-heavy docket
A Winnipeg Free Press columnist points out that it will be an interesting autumn for Canadian journalists as the Canadian Supreme Court takes on three media law issues in six different cases.
Two cases concern the issue of how much protection journalists can offer their confidential sources. Another two involve the issue of a libel defense for "responsible journalism," which sounds functionally similar to the U.S. "actual malice" test. And two more . . . [more]
— Posted at 4:26 pm · Comments: 0
NEWS MEDIA UPDATE U.S. · September 1, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Military appeals court rejects reporter's privilege
A military appeals court has found that military courts should not recognize a reporter's privilege, based on either the constitution or common law.
The decision overturns a decision by a military judge to quash a subpoena served on CBS for outtakes from a Sixty Minutes interview with Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, who has been accused of involvement in the killings of 24 civilians near Haditha, Iraq in 2005.
The court rejected CBS's argument that the First Amendment creates a reporter's privilege that applies in military courts, finding that such a privilege is not "required by or provided for" in the U.S. Constitution, as military rules of evidence require. The court found that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a First Amendment-based privilege.
The court also rejected a common law privilege, finding that there is no clear majority of federal courts that have recognized the privilege, particularly as it would apply to non-confidential-source cases, such as a subpoena for outtakes. Instead, there is "substantial . . . [more]
— Posted at 6:58 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · August 3, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Judge in Libby, Locy cases favors limited shield law
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who presided over the "Scooter" Libby leak case and once held a USA Today reporter in contempt, said journalists should have a limited protection for their sources in the courtroom, The Associated Press reported Saturday.
At an American Bar Association panel in Chicago, Walton said an unlimited shield law would be dangerous, but that courts should not be allowed to access reporters' sources in a "willy nilly" manner, the AP . . . [more]
— Lucas Tanglen, 5:01 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK U.S. · August 3, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Judge in Libby, Locy cases favors limited shield law
U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, who presided over the "Scooter" Libby leak case and once held a USA Today reporter in contempt, said journalists should have a limited protection for their sources in the courtroom, The Associated Press reported Saturday.
At an American Bar Association panel in Chicago, Walton said an unlimited shield law would be dangerous, but that courts should not be allowed to access reporters' sources in a "willy nilly" manner, the AP . . . [more]
— Lucas Tanglen, 4:59 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK International · July 31, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Irish Supreme Court rules in favor of source protection
Ireland's Supreme Court has ruled that the Irish Times was justified in protecting its confidential source for documents revealing a government corruption investigation.
According to The Associated Press, the Irish High Court in 2007 ordered the Times to identify its source for the documents, which came from a tribunal conducting a corruption inquiry. The Times editor and a reporter refused, saying the documents had been destroyed.
But the . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 12:16 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Jersey · July 16, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Donald Trump's defamation suit dismissed
A New Jersey judge has dismissed Donald Trump's libel lawsuit against an author who Trump had claimed underrepresented his personal wealth, The New York Times reported.
The author, Timothy L. O'Brien, wrote in a 2005 biography "Trump Nation: The Art of Being the Donald" that Trump's wealth fell between $150 million and $250 million, significantly lower than the $5 billion to $6 billion Trump claims to be worth. A trial court judge had at first ordered . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 5:36 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK Texas · July 9, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Anonymous commenters protected by Texas shield law
A Texas judge ruled last month that the identities of anonymous commenters on a newspaper's Web site were protected by the state's new shield law, the Abilene Reporter-News reported.
The decision is part of a murder case the Abilene Reporter-News covered. The defense sought the identities of people who commented on stories about the victim and the suspect, claiming they were needed to ensure none of those people ended up on the jury, according to the newspaper. . . . [more]
— Jonathan Jones, 5:40 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK California · July 7, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Marine acquitted without reporter's testimony
Despite a court order, a San Diego reporter has managed to avoid testifying in the court martial of a Marine he interviewed who was subsequently brought up on disobedience charges for speaking with the press.
The Marine, Pvt. Gary Maziarz, was acquitted last week in a hearing at Camp Pendleton. He was accused of defying orders by speaking with reporter Rick Rogers about his involvement in a plot to steal and pass on classified military information, according to The San Diego . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 4:31 pm · Comments: 0
QUICKLINK New Jersey · July 6, 2009 · Reporter's privilege
Blogger not covered by New Jersey shield law, court says
A New Jersey judge ruled last week that a blogger does not qualify for protection under the state's shield law.
Superior Court Judge Louis Locascio rejected blogger Shellee Hale's claims that accusations posted on Oprano.com, a forum frequented by members of the adult entertainment industry, about a New Jersey-based software company should be covered by the shield law as information collected in the newsgathering process, according to The New Jersey . . . [more]
— Caitlin Dickson, 5:23 pm · Comments: 0
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